The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September sued Apple, claiming the manager of one of its Virginia retail stores made antisemitic comments and forced a Jewish employee to work on the sabbath.

According to the federal lawsuit filed in Alexandria, Virginia, the manager of the Reston store also warned the 16-year-old working at the Genius Bar providing technical support to customers not to discuss the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel with his coworkers.

The teenager said he complained to Apple twice but was fired in January 2024 after refusing to work on a Friday.

Apple denied the teenager's allegations and told USA TODAY it fosters “an inclusive environment where everyone is welcome.” The company also said it received a dozen complaints about the employee from customers and coworkers.

The lawsuit is the latest in a groundswell of complaints alleging faith-based discrimination and antisemitism amid a major push by the Trump administration to increase religious freedom in the workplace.

Appealing to conservative Christian voters during his campaign, President Donald Trump framed his 2024 bid as a fight for faith. Early in his administration, he pledged his administration would “protect the Judeo-Christian values of our founding.”

In July, the Office of Personnel Management outlined the rights of federal employees to engage in religious expression, such as praying at work or displaying religious items or encouraging coworkers to share their faith, and directed federal agencies to take a “generous approach” to religious accommodations such as flexible schedules.

Trump expands religious rights at work

The EEOC, which investigates employment discrimination in the private sector, is increasingly focused on faith-based protections. As of September, the EEOC had filed more than 50 lawsuits in 2025, the White & Case law firm found. While religious discrimination cases represent a relatively small portion, those complaints are “trending upward,” White & Case attorneys said.This month, the Senate confirmed Trump’s pick of Brittany Panuccio as an EEOC commissioner and she was sworn in this week, establishing a Republican majority at the agency and clearing the way for the EEOC to make major policy changes and to approve certain types of litigation. In January, Trump fired two Democratic commissioners before their terms were up, leaving the EEOC without a quorum.

“The EEOC has already come out and said it is going to be advancing the president’s agenda,” said Barbara Hoey, an employment lawyer with the Kelley, Drye & Warren law firm. “Now that they have their quorum, you are going to see a lot of activity.”

Religion is EEOC ‘signature issue’

About 3 in 4 Americans identify with a religious faith, according to Gallup. Even as America becomes more polarized, the workplace is one spot where people from all different faiths regularly interact, giving rise to the potential for conflict.

A 2022 Rice University study found that two-thirds of Muslims, half of Jews and more than a third of evangelical Christians say they experience discrimination at work.

Four out of 10 American workers surveyed by the nonprofit Gevura Fund said they believe religious discrimination is on the rise and 1 in 5 said they have been treated poorly or harassed over the past year because of their religion.

Acting Chair Andrea Lucas has said she wants to make defending religious freedom “a signature issue” of her time at the EEOC.

Lucas told senators during a June hearing that she was inspired to pursue employment law by her father, who lost his job when she was a child, in part, for “speaking honestly” about his faith.

"Religious protections too often took a backseat to woke policies" during the Biden administration, Lucas said recently, and American workers should not be forced to choose “between their paycheck and their faith.”

On her watch, the EEOC has sued a staffing company for forcing a Muslim employee to choose between shaving his beard and termination and a vacation timeshare company for failing to accommodate a Seventh Day Adventist’s request for Saturdays off to observe the sabbath.

It has also settled a number of claims. Chipotle in April paid $20,000 to settle allegations an assistant manager in Kansas repeatedly harassed a Muslim employee for wearing a hijab and even attempted to remove it.

In September, the national restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s agreed to pay $80,000 to a job applicant who alleged he was not hired because he requested Sundays off for religious reasons. P.F. Chang’s also agreed to revise its workplace policies on religious accommodations and post notices to staff about the case.

Religious discrimination claims to rise

The Trump administration’s focus on religious freedom comes as the Supreme Court has become more receptive to claims from religious groups.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination in the workplace and requires employers to accommodate the beliefs and practices of their workers unless doing so would cause hardship.

In 1977, the Supreme Court defined that hardship as a minimal burden, making it easier for employers to deny religious accommodations. But two years ago, the nation’s high court strengthened protections for religious rights in the workplace when it ruled in favor of an evangelical Christian and former postal worker, Gerald Groff, who alleged he was discriminated against because he refused to deliver mail on Sundays.

Now employers must show a substantial hardship when refusing to honor religious beliefs or practices, such as allowing employees to wear a yarmulke, hijab or turban, pray at work or to schedule work around religious observances.

“The fallout from Groff is still being tested in courts throughout the country,” Kelley Drye’s Hoey and Benjamin Gilman wrote in September. “The sheer number of cases in the last two years demonstrates that issues surrounding religious discrimination and accommodations in the workplace are not going away anytime soon.”

Abby Southerland, senior litigation counsel with the American Center for Law and Justice, said her organization that advocates for religious and constitutional freedoms has "definitely seen an uptick in religious discrimination claims.”

Southerland said she expects more “equal-handed enforcement” from the Trump administration and “close attention” to religious rights.

“I think the prior administration took a backseat to enforcing the federal laws in this area vigorously in contrast to the current administration where Trump is committed to making sure these laws are enforced,” she said.

Rising tensions over religion at work

The American Center for Law and Justice recently filed a complaint with the EEOC against Timken, an industrial and automotive equipment manufacturer. A former human resources manager at the Springfield, Missouri plant claimed he was told to hide his cross necklace under his shirt and to put away the bible he read on work breaks because it was not "inclusive" and then was fired.

Timken declined to comment "on individual personnel actions or ongoing legal matters" and said it was committed to "maintaining a respectful and inclusive environment for all our employees."

At a time when managers encourage employees to “bring their whole selves to work,” practicing one's faith at work was already raising complicated questions. Now greater religious freedom could lead to increased tensions in the workplace and bigger headaches for employers, lawyers say.

Under current EEOC guidance, the law protects all religions, including new or unusual faiths. What if these religious beliefs conflict with more traditional beliefs at work? Or what if a Christian employee invites an atheist colleague to bible study and the atheist employee complains of harassment?

“One thing is clear: employees have a right to bring their religious beliefs and expression into the workplace,” wrote Paige Hoster Good, a partner with the Oklahoma-based law firm of McAfee & Taft. “What is not clear for employers is how far that right extends, how to navigate difficult issues when there is a clash of beliefs or how to balance competing rights for employees that may feel harassed by religious expression.”

The only guarantee? “Clients are going to be calling me and their attorneys more to figure it out,” Good told USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Work, pray, litigate? Trump pushes for more religious freedom in the workplace

Reporting by Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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